School Directors v. Parks

Citations

• 85 Ill. 338

Syllabus

<p>1. School law—school director prohibited from contracting with district. Both the letter and spirit of the law forbid that directors of schools shall in anywise, whether directly or indirectly, openly or covertly, become interested in demands or claims originating while they are directors, to be satisfied by payment from the funds of their district.</p> <p>2. Where orders were drawn by two school directors in favor of the third, one for labor in repairing a school house, and the other for wood furnished the school, of which payment was made by the township treasurer, it was held, that if the services were performed and the wood furnished while the person receiving the orders was director, the school district was entitled to recover the money so paid, in an action against him, but if before he was elected, it was not.</p> <p>3. Burden of proof. Where a school director is shown engaged in a transaction which prima facie he is prohibited to engage in, as he is in taking orders to himself for wood furnished and labor performed, the burden is then on him to show that though the orders are then executed, they are not, as otherwise would be the presumption, a settlement of transactions just completed, but in settlement of transactions before he became a director.</p>